Galveston – The Harbor House Hotel at Pier 21

Let’s – after quite some time in between – continue with reporting about our stay in Galveston more than a month ago, this time with a description/review of our hotel. Ever since we had seen it last year we had had our eyes on it for a stay because of its great location directly at the waterfront of Galveston harbour at pier 21 – even if, from the outside, it didn’t look too posh, and, for a place in Galveston, certainly lacked character.

Let me start with the positive: our room was quite spacious. That it was spotlessly clean is actually normal and should not be worth mentioning, were it not for the fact that not much more positive, except for the fact that the staff was friendly and helpful, can be said.

Oh well, there certainly is something we liked a lot, and that definitely is the location, especially with the Tall Ships’ Festival going on. As they say: location, location, location! It was in the gated festival area, directly [within spitting-distance] next to the tall ships, and from our room we had a good view onto the Elissa …

The negative: for a hotel that pricey [of course, part of that was because of the festival], the breakfast had extremely little choices, about the standard of a cheap motel. Just some cereals, yogurt, fruit [the bananas became quite “tigerish” during our stay], and sweet rolls was not really what we would have expected. Add to this that things were only rarely refilled. Also on the negative side: the breakfast room was very small. At a hotel of this price level, we would also have expected a swimming-pool and an exercise room. They were offered for free at the sister hotel, the Galvez, about 2 miles away.

In all, the only fact really in favour of this hotel for us was the location, just in the midst of the tall ships festival area, which allowed us to also watch – from the window at the end of the hallway – the ships sailing by:

Well, actually the hotel is somewhat cheaper when there’s no festival. But still, they charge you because of the location. And: they charge you an additional ten bucks a day for parking – in the open on their parking lot.
Last year we stayed at a La Quinta on the Seawall Boulevard for a tad over $100 per night. Not too cheap, either. The motel was fairly old. But at least they served a good breakfast.

This was an interesting read. I’ve never known anyone who actually stayed at the Harbor House. Most people I know who “go to the HH” reserve a slip, and stay aboard their boat in the equally small Harbor. Your description makes me think they live by the “one and done” philosophy, figuring that an endless supply of tourists will keep them busy, even if no one ever comes back.

Glad tou liked all that stuff about the hotel, Linda. As to the price of the rooms: I just checked, and now – without the festival – they seem to start at $90, which, to my mind, is quite reasonable for a hotel in Galveston in that location. I can’t really compare, of course, as our bookings were for the whole kit and caboodle: rooms, festival tickets to all events including two sunset parties wih drinks and food, VIP-access [skipping the waiting lines] to the ships, and parking. We had debated if the price would be worth it, but with hindsight we’d still say yes.
I knew that they call themselves “… hotel and marina”, but with that very tiny spot I had never jhought you could really get a mooring there. Good to know.